Narrator: A turtle's shell is as much a part of its body as our rib cage is of ours. In fact, it is their rib cage, and their spine, and their vertebrae, and their sternum. Basically, a turtle's ...

In cartoons, when a turtle is spooked, it retreats into and closes up its shell. While used for comic effect, this imagery is based in fact – although not all turtles are capable of this protective ...

WASHINGTON (WUSA) – About five to ten million years ago, giant turtles lived in freshwater swamps in South America. Researchers recently found shells of the extinct turtles called Stupendemys. The ...

Scientists have been closely monitoring a map turtle population after 10 percent died in 2022. They found a surprising ...

It's a long-held idea that turtles can tuck their heads into their shells when threatened. But is it true? And is this protective trick why turtles the world over have shells today? The answer is that ...

Do turtle shells actually consist of modified ribs? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. This weird-but-true claim went viral in mid-June 2021 when Twitter user and post-doctorate turtle expert Ceri ...

This one-ton turtle once ruled South America’s rivers — until a changing planet proved too much for even the largest ...

Move over, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — there is a new, shell-backed badass in town. In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers announced the discovery of a ...

How smushed shells could help to resolve paleontological mysteries. By Asher Elbein You never know where a bit of unusual scientific research is going to lead. Consider a 2012 study about turtle ...